Connecticut College officials canceled classes on Monday after someone scrawled “No N-words” in the bathrooms on the first floor of the student center building, according to various media reports.

NBC Connecticut says college officials were notified of the scrawl found at the Crozier-Williams building at 12:15 p.m. Sunday. The graffiti was removed, according to a campus-wide email from Victor Arcelus, dean of student life, and Stewart Smith, director of campus safety.

College President Katherine Bergeron, who canceled classes and worked with students and faculty late into Sunday night to arrange the mandatory Monday program, said it’s been a “difficult month” and that “these issues show without a doubt the kind of harm that can be done by language that is bigoted and hateful and what kind of harm they can have in a community. … We shouldn’t tolerate this. Connecticut College is better than that.”

As she opened Monday’s program, Bergeron spoke to about 1,300 students who filled Palmer Auditorium: “The conversations of the last week, while painful and difficult, have also given me reason to hope that this is a place that is going to be an exemplar in the world of higher education for what we can do about diversity and our education.

“This is an important day for all of us and I hope we all learn as much as we can in order to move forward in the most positive way for this campus and for all who have experienced the pain and hurt of the last week.”

The incident comes after controversy erupted earlier this month over a professor’s language choice while describing the Gaza Strip conflict in a Facebook post, the report says.

Our take? We’re glad the university is taking steps to address the issue, but racism is not limited to Connecticut College. Remember the racist fraternity chant at the University of Oklahoma? The nation needs to come together as a whole to deal with the problem, because xenophobia is shaping young minds.